Indonesia Visited by 547,000 Foreign Tourists in October

KOMPAS/ARUM TRESNANINGTYAS DAYUPUTRI, WEDNESDAY, 2 DECEMBER 2009 | 3:00 PM

"Angklung" is a kind of West Java traditional musical instrument that has attracted the foreign tourists to learn how to play it as seen at Saung Angklung Udjo, Bandung City, West Java, Oct. 9, 2009

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - About 547.2 thousand foreign tourists visited Indonesia in October 2009, up 3.36 percent from the figure in the same period in 2008, a statistics official said. "If in October 2008 there were 529.5 thousand foreign tourist arrivals, the figure rose 3.36 percent to 547.2 thousands in a corresponding period this year," Rusman Heriawan, chief of the Central Board Statistics (BPS), said on Tuesday.

He said that the October figure also increased by 10.81 percent if compared with that in the previous month. The BPS chief said that the number of foreign tourists who entered the country through 11 main gates also increased 5.87 percent if compared with that of the same month in the previous year, namely from 346.8 thousands to 462.5 thousands.

"If compared with the previous month in September 2009, the number of arrivals through the 11 main gates increased 12.02 percent," he added. The accumulative number of foreign tourist arrivals in the January-October 2009 period reached 5.17 million people, up 1.31 percent compared with the same period in the previous year, which was recorded at 5.10 million, he said.

In the meantime, the hotel occupancy rate in 14 provinces was recorded at an average 49.54 percent, up 4.41 percent from 45.54 percent in the previous month in September 2009. The average length of stay of foreign tourists in star-rated hotels in 14 provinces in October 2009 was recorded at 2.13 days, down 0.02 percent from that a month earlier, the BPS chief said.

Editor: jimbon

Source : Antara